Award-winning Chinese developer of Genshin Impact, miHoYo, has been in the business of making great games since the year 2012.
However, the 2020 blockbuster Genshin Impact was singlehandedly responsible for its global success, delivering an experience that is incredibly popular; with sales totaling beyond $2 billion in its first year on mobile platforms.
It would be an understatement to claim that the company has stood by its famous motto: “Tech Otakus Save The World”, and with so much capital at their disposal, they’ve decided to buy a friggin’ fusion reactor!
Recently, alongside the Chinese investment firm NIO capital, miHoYo led a funding round for a total of $63 million to be put towards an organization known as Energy Singularity.
These funds are to be utilized for the research and development of an experimental tokamak fusion reactor with advanced magnetic systems and superconducting material of high temperature.
What is a Tokamak?
By definition, a tokamak is one of many design concepts for plants that perform nuclear fusion in which plasma is confined in a donut shape with the aid of magnetic fields. As of modern science, it is, essentially, the most achievable and realistic solution for nuclear fusion.
In theory, the process of nuclear fusion (combining two atomic nuclei) is far more advantageous than nuclear fission (splitting of a nucleus) to release energy. Sadly, since research began in the 1940s, no working reactor has been constructed.
If such a device can be created, the technology could revolutionize world energy supplies and become a powerful tool in the fight against climate change, especially considering that fusion produces less waste than what has been observed with fission.
This represented the company’s first investment into Energy Singularity, founded in the year 2021 by experts spanning a variety of fields, and is dedicated to commercializing fusion technology.
Once this round of funding is complete, it plans to develop experimental Tokamak with advanced superconducting capabilities.
Perhaps by next century, schools will compose textbooks all about how a bunch of weebs inadvertently protected the Earth from annihilation by whaling on their favorite waifus.
Other Science Ventures
Not only does miHoYo have a vested interest in nuclear fusion, but in 2021, it also funded a science center that is researching brain-computer interfaces and how they could potentially be used to treat depression.
Meanwhile, the company’s core product, Genshin Impact, continues to get regularly scheduled content updates.